The Life of a Lifeguard
by Jeralee
Summary: AU. A boy who likes nothing but eating mackerel and swimming in tiny fishtanks? Finally, I've met someone who is stranger than I am! Haruka x OC but still to be decided.
1. A Serial Urinator

Hi there! I hope you enjoy this I wrote for the Free! board :) I remember when this was just rumored to be an advert but then it was announced to be an anime. I never had the chance to watch it but I was hooked from the advert and the other day I saw the first episode :) Plus, I know the summary seems to tip into favor with Haruka, but I will need to see who the OC has the most chemistry with lol, but it won't be Nagisa because he's too shota for me ^^"

Disclaimer: Don't own Free!

Summary: A boy who likes nothing but eating fish and swimming in any bodies of water he can get his hands on, including fishtanks!? Finally, I've met someone who is stranger than I am! Pairings undecided

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**A SERIAL URINATOR, CPR AND A SUBARU**

"Scrub scrub scruuuub...rub a dub dub... Cleaning everywhere...washing everywhereeeee!"

"Ew...look at that loser...she's getting off from cleaning _grout_."

"That's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my whole entire life."

I turned round with the handle of the broom in hand. Both girls in tiny, revealing bikinis stared at me, blinking numbly for a moment before their expressions darkened and their neatly waxed eyebrows slowly drifted back with spite as though waiting for whatever witty response that I could think of. Too bad there wasn't really one. I'm those kinds of people who don't do anything, then think about and realize I should've done _this _or _that_, etc. Instead, all I did was take a deep breath and say, "He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious."

"...What?" muttered one of the girls, as I prodded my glasses further up my nose.

"It's from Sun Tzu's '_The Art of War_'." I uttered.

"Sun...Too? What?"

"Don't even bother pronouncing his name. You'll just embarrass yourself. It's too bad you're only endowed here-" I made a gesture over my chest and the girl instinctively lifted an arm to cover her own chest, "While up here-" I pointed to the top of my head, "...Is obviously empty."

"Weirdo." snapped the girl, turning away with her nose in her air.

"Nerd." Her friend vocalized next.

"What a freak." She added.

"Loser." Her friend chimed in, before she lowered her voice and whispered, "It's no wonder no boy in school has ever confessed to her."

"Who in the hell would have the right mind to?"

"Never mind, let's go see Makoto-senpai~"

With that, the two girls stalked away snootily with their butts and hips waggling to and fro and I turned back round to focus on what I had been doing, albeit with shaking legs. Ahhh...that was so scary. I've never stood up to people like that before. I tried not to let the comments get to me but my fingers were gripping the brush so tightly I thought the handle would snap in half, and my legs were trembling so much I thought I would've collapsed. My stomach had twisted into this tight knot and I actually feel _sick_. Usually, I could handle insults, but this time I just had to do something_._

With a sigh, I pushed my glasses further up my nose again and continued to scrub at the tile I had been cleaning. I had been in a good mood until_ that_ happened... Now I just feel sick and wanting to go home. I shouldn't even be here.

A few weeks ago, I got detention from a teacher who looped me in to clean the pool of the Iwatobi High swim club. Now I need to go report to Coach Goro every Thursday afternoon to clean the pool for the rest of the month. Maybe more.

It's not too bad, I guess, because every now and then, half-naked guys will come running past me. It's even better than Baywatch because it's actually happening in front of my eyes. Now, before you make a judgmental decision on my character right now from that pervy comment I just made, do you see that scrawny girl with long, uncombed, tangled and frizzy, shaggy brown hair hanging all over her face like Cousin It from the Addam's Family? It's not that hard to miss her; she's standing by herself at the edge of the pool while everyone else is having fun, splashing around and swimming freely in the pool...

Yep, that's me.

Now, today's society is so notoriously shallow anyone who will walk past me will immediately point and laugh or at least mentally make some blunt remark about this geeky spectacled girl, thinking that she was probably a devout bookworm and nerd, a geeky loser girl who hadn't been kissed, hugged or held hands with a boy, for her whole sixteen years of miserable existence... I agree, because it's kinda true.

I'm not surprised. My life has never been a shoujo manga or those Korean romantic dramas I watch on TV. My life doesn't revolve around tragedy, melodrama or hot, handsome guys who give me second glances (let alone one). Nope. Nothing like that. No hot guys in my life with awesome hair or pouty lips or shimmering soulful eyes fawning over me. Don't get me wrong, the swim club is full of hot guys but they don't even look at me (not that there's a lot to look at, either). They don't know who I am anyway; I come here_ after_ they're done with the pool. When they're finished with swimming practice, they all head off to get a shower and clean up for the rest of the day and go home. Then I come to clean up. I don't see anyone. They don't see me. I'm I.N.V.I.S.I.B.L.E. Oh well, I have more important things to do, like get this swimming pool nice and clean for folks to use.

Ah! I just remembered. Want to hear something really disgusting?

Apparently, someone _peed_ in the pool the other day...and this has already happened several times. Not once, but _several_. I need to find out who this serial urinator is so I can beat the living daylights out of him (or her) for making my life a misery whenever I clean the pool. At the moment though, the serial pee-er is not my concern since I haven't started on the pool yet as at the moment, I'm still cleaning the grout out of the tiles, but I'll still need to get to the bottom of it. Can't let a serial urinator go. What next? A serial pooper? Eurgghh! I tried not to think about it.

"Scrubbing this and there~ Scrubbing everywhereeeee~!" I picked up where I left off in my Happy Working Song, trying to get the long scrub brush into every possible nook and cranny granted. Hmm, perhaps a change of song will change my mood. Ah, okay, here goes! "I get knocked down! But I get up again, you're never gonna kick me down! I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna get me down-"

Ever since Iwatobi Swim Club became more and more popular - these kind of girls began to come in. They don't even come here to learn to swim or to improve (were they even allowed to join?). They come here to deliberately wear teeny-weeny, itty bitty bikinis so their assets can jiggle around and also because they like to ogle at the male students and also like it when the male students ogle at them. Sure, the male swimmers are so muscly and toned with nice, shapely butts, broad shoulders and bulging pecs in all the right areas...it's a little hard to believe that they're only high school students since they're so refined and toned...Mmm, yummers...haaaah...drool drool drool...

Anyway, so about half an hour later, practice was over and everyone had headed home. It was just me left and I was about to finish up when I felt a force on my back as I scrubbed at the poolside and I was in the water. I'd been pushed and I hit the water. I went under completely and I tried to resurface but then there something pushing down on my head and every time I tried to get up, or at least, whenever I poked my head above the surface of the water of the pool, something kept shoving me back in.

"Ack! *_cough cough_* Help!" I shouted, spluttering and flailing my arms around helplessly as I bobbed up and down. When I opened my eyes, I could see two familiar figures standing at the pool side. It was those girls again! And they were using my scrub brush to constantly dunk me under. "Help! Stoooop! Ack! *glug glug glub* Nooo!"

This went on for a few minutes by the way. Everytime I went under the water, it went silent and my vision was naught but blue, as though there was a completely different world down here...and when I would bob back up, I could hear them laughing, and my vision was now growing darker and darker and my arms were getting weaker when...

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

"The pool's closed now!"

"Haru-chan! There's someone in the water!"

"Hurry!"

Now, I don't remember much but when I woke up, there was a guy's face hovering in front of me. He has the purest blue eyes I have ever seen, like a clear blue ocean, and for a moment, I found myself lost in them for a split second before he blinked and withdrew his mouth from mine. Oh. Right... So he was performing CPR on me, with a hand pinching my nose and the other under my chin and tilting my face closer to his and then there was also a thin stream of saliva that was linking our mouths together. It was kind of gross and disgusting, like dew on a spider's web. Sorry, I'm so graphical. I'm just like that. You know those kinds of people who...well, when they are presented with a picture or something... they point out all the weird things first? Yeah, I'm one of those people. Sorry, ahem.

"Heeey, she's awake!" exclaimed a boy with orangey-blond hair. He reminds me a bit of a rabbit, with his cheerful demeanor and the way how he was hopping around gleefully at my awakening, while Mr Cool, Blue and Sexy moves his hands away.

"Are you alright?" enquired another guy at my left; this time, the guy has light, olive-green hair. His face was gentle. Overall, he was hot, gentle and green. Ooh. Even his voice is as gentle as his face. So this is what heaven looks like...

"We should check if she's hurt anywhere, Makoto-senpai," said the guy to my right. He was tall, dark and geeky.

I coughed a little, squeezing my eyes shut and having to roll onto my side for a bit. The guy who'd finished resuscitating me moves away to sit and Hot, Gentle and Green tries to get me to sit up. "Uh...whu...what happened?" I asked throatily, coughing and hacking like there was no tomorrow.

"We managed to get you out of the water." said Mr Hot, Gentle and Green. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"I...I'm fine..." I managed to croak out, "I'm fine, thank you. Unhhh...I'm all wet..." I glanced down at myself, noticing how my entire uniform was now damp and soggy and even my shirt had become see-through, giving everyone a view of my black underwear underneath. Urrrk. As if on cue, everyone seemed to have been unable to look at me in the eye.

"Here." said Hot, gentle and green, clearing his throat as he handed me my glasses.

"Thanks." I muttered as I scooped them off him, settling them over my eyes so I could get a clearer look of them; they were wet but at least I could see properly and I gasped as soon as my eyes had laid on the group before me. _ERMAHGERD. They're all so f*cking cute! _"GAHHH!" I suddenly cried out, clutching at my lower tummy as I doubled over without warning.

"Are you okay?!" asked Hot, Gentle and Green, and I nodded weakly.

"What happened? Where are you hurt?"

I shook my head this time.

"...Then, what's wrong?"

Still shaking my head, all I could do was let out a whimper, _No more...I don't think my ovaries can take anymore..._

"Oh! Your nose..." Hot, Gentle and Green then pointed to his own nose.

"My nose...?" I mirrored his actions and touched my nose with a fingertip only to pull back when I found it wet and red. "Argh! I-I'm bleeding! HELP!"

Again, the green-haired one was chuckling reassuringly at me, "It's okay, you'll be fine. It's just a nosebleed, that's all. Can someone get her a tissue?"

Sooner or later, a rolled hanky was handed to me from Mr Tall, Dark and Geeky which I then proceeded to jam up the bleeding nostril after mumbling my gratitude. "I am so sorry for all the trouble I have caused. Thank you for saving me." I said with an apologetic bow of the head, as I faced all the half-naked guys with their glorious, glistening chests and rugged, chiseled six-packs in front of me. "But I don't know why my nose is bleeding. I can't imagine what caused it."

"Did they do that to you?" said Mr Hot, gentle and green, gesturing to my bleeding nose.

"_They_?"

"Yeah, those girls. They ran off after Rei and I saw them." said Mr Bunny Blond, crossing his arms over his chest, "What they did was really dangerous!"

"Indeed, I shall make sure this incident gets reported to Amakata-sensei..." murmured tall, dark and geeky as he hid his eyes behind the gleam of his glasses. It was a bit sinister looking, but nonetheless, his words meant well.

I shook my head in response. "No, don't...if those girls found out we told sensei...they'll just do something else to me..."

"It really bugs me when a team member is being bullied." said bunny blond, pouting slightly. "We should do something! They were talking to Mako-chan earlier on, you know! How could they do such a horrible thing?"

"I'm not being bullied. I don't even know those girls." I said.

"...But...aren't those your bag and shoes?" Hot, gentle and green pointed to the numerous items which I hadn't noticed that were floating on the water's surface.

My face reddened as I caught sight of my schoolbag and my books and jotters along with my school shoes and socks in the pool. "Oh." I croaked out again, throat going slightly dry, "I-It's no big deal. This happens frequently. I'm used to it." _...But I'm not used to having a group of people actually witnessing this kind of thing happening. This is so embarrassing..._

"You should tell someone!" asserted bunny blond, "You should!"

"No, honestly, it's nothing." I said sternly, trying to stand. However, my legs swayed slightly and to my astonishment, it was not hot, gentle and green who managed to get to me first as I had expected since he'd been nothing but caring the whole entire time since I woke up – it was Mr Cool, Blue and Sexy – maybe because I was about to fall on top of him if he hadn't caught me. He'd saved himself and myself from an embarrassing situation. His hand was placed gingerly on the small of my back before I could collapse and I tensed up all over, my entire body going as still as a statue. However, my mind and heart was racing at 100mph simultaneously: _Ahh, finally! My shoujo moment has come! And they say this only happens in the movies! Hey, wait a minute! I almost drowned! There's nothing romantic about this at all!_

Again, bunny blond was the quickest to react out of the group, "Whoaaa! Are you okay?" He prodded at my side with a curious index finger, noticing how rigid I'd become.

"Y-yeah." I stammered out; as Bunny Blond retreated his finger, Mr Blue removed his hand as though he hadn't even sensed my sudden hunching and bunching and I kept my head low so they wouldn't see how warm my face had become. "Thank you...I'm, uh, I'm not even on the team anyway. I'm... just the cleaner. I clean the pools regularly every Thursday, so..."

"Oh, wow!" Bunny Blond continued to exclaim, whilst I hung my head low. It was really embarrassing for me to say those words, but how else was I supposed to tell them that I was the pool's caretaker? "So it's YOU who keeps our pools so clean, so nice and refreshing and sparkly! Thank you so much!"

I was a little taken back from the overwhelming gratitude I was hurtled with from out of nowhere. "Huh? Oh...wow...oh, oh gosh, t-that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me before...oh...ohhh..." I let out an awkward chuckle, rubbing at the back of my neck sheepishly before twiddling two fingers together, "Yeah, that's right. I stop the pool from going green or pink from bacteria. And at the moment, I'm trying to find the one who keeps peeing in the pool. It's happened three days in a row now."

Almost immediately, there was a hubbub amongst the more talkative of the group:

"Ew! Yuck! Mako-chan, I feel sick..."

"Me too. That's horrible."

"Unhygienic. Who would do such a barbaric thing, Makoto-senpai?"

To my surprise, Mr Cool, blue and sexy immediately stalked towards the poolside. "...What's wrong, Haru-chan?" asked Mr Green.

Instead, Mr Blue ignored his friends, attention on me solely. "When did this begin?"

I hadn't heard him speak at all but he had such a nice and calm, mature and leveled voice. I found myself unable to answer all at once, instead all I was capable of was gawping at him uncouthly as I sat dripping and wet in my damp uniform. "Haha! Haru-chan's really grossed out!" said Bunny Blond, a wide grin plastered on his face.

"I-I dunno. A few days ago, I think." I finally spluttered out. Before I knew it, bunny blond had leapt over and he was in my arms. Huh, I'm pretty sure it's meant to be the other way around when it came to guys and girls hugging. "Oof!" I grunted out, struggling with his weight. He might be shorter than me a little but since he's still a guy, he's still pretty heavy.

"I have an idea! Let's catch this guy together!" He exclaimed, still with his arms tangled around me. Normally I wouldn't like random strangers glomping me but I guess my drowning-spell made me a little woozy at the moment. I was not quite myself. "I mean, we're so grateful to have you around! Thank you soooo much! We really appreciate it! I know! Let's make you our official pool guard! Join us! Here, have a penguin!"

"Uh...whu..." Suddenly there was a plastic emperor penguin toy rammed into my hands thanks to bunny blond.

"Nagisa, please! She just woke up..." Hot, gentle and green chided him, peeling him off me before placing him back onto his feet on the ground, "Oh, we should introduce ourselves! I'm Tachibana Makoto. This is Hazuki Nagisa-"

"Hi!" said bunny blond, waving at me cheerfully.

Makoto, aka Hot Gentle and Green continued, "This is Ryugazaki Rei, and-"

"This is Haru-chan!" Nagisa said, gesturing to the blue-haired boy who hadn't said anything since he'd found out about the serial urinator, "He dived into the water immediately when you were drowning!"

"Nagisa!" Makoto reprimanded harshly, but still gently.

"What? It's true~"

"Yeah, but you don't have to sound so happy about it..."

"Oh, sorry!"

I watched the group before me, then a giggle escaped my lips as I watched them bicker jovially amongst themselves. All boys turned to me expectantly. "What's your name?" Makoto asked, "We do see you around but we haven't had much of an opportunity to introduce ourselves. Sorry."

"Huh? You...see me?"

"You always come fifteen minutes early." muttered Haru, and I turned to him with acute surprise. "Today, you were five minutes late..."

If he wasn't so hot, I guess that would've been a creepy statement. I would've thought he'd been stalking me or something. "Oh!" I exclaimed, clasping my hands together, "Yeah, I was a little late coming in today. Well, t-that's okay. Don't worry about it. You're always so busy, getting ready for relays and stuff. I don't get noticed often. I'm used to it anyway." I said, a little cheerfully now, "Subaru. My name's Mitsushige Subaru. It's nice to meet you all. I apologize about the serial urinator, though. I do try my best to have the pool as clean and tidy as much as possible."

"Hehe, it's not your fault. Nice to meet you too, Subaru-chan!" Makoto said cheerfully, shaking my hand warmly.

"Yes, a pleasure to meet you, Mitsushige-san." came Rei's stoic response.

"I hope you clean the pools more often! You're doing a great job, Su-chan!" Nagisa cheered.

The overwhelming nicknames and sudden introductions were a little too much. In fact, I think I'd forgotten who was who. It had all been rather quick. "T-thank you, you're all too kind..." I muttered; my eyes automatically swerved towards the direction of the guy called Haru, but he seemed more engrossed with staring at the swimming pool before him instead. _Oh well, never mind. At least most of the poster boys of Iwatobi are nice. Can't hope for them all to be friendly, right?_

How wrong I was.

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So yeah! There goes the first chapter :) I wasn't sure if it was OOC or not thought, and I still can't decide if it should be a Haruka OC or Makoto OC or Rin OC (even though he hasn't appeared yet), so I'll need to think about this. Laterz!


	2. Rooftop Drama

Yay! I got some alerts and a fav! I'm happy to see that some people are interested in this fic (despite the craptastic story title lol) :) It made me want to write chapter 2 :D I've bought the Free! DVD from ebay since I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet. I can't wait till it comes :D

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**ROOFTOP DRAMA**

"I've already told you, I'm not interested so-"

I wouldn't have gone into school the next day if I knew this was lying in store for me: it was lunch and Hazuki Nagisa interrupted me in mid-sentence with a well-timed jump and sprung at me with arms and legs out like those creepy-ass Facehuggers from those Alien movies my brothers used to watch when I was younger. If Nagisa had a tail then he'd really fit the description. I could only stare wide-eyed and frozen on the spot as he came flying towards me and - "Su-chan!" He exclaimed; he was a fraction smaller than I was so he ended up hugging my head and his legs were practically shoved under my pits before he proceeded to snake his legs around me and bawl while flailing side to side, "Please! Please be our unofficial poolguard! You'll be so good at it!"

"Er... What are you doing?" I said, as he squeezed my upper torso tightly. This feels weird...No, this IS weird!

"I'm not letting go unless Su-chan joins the Swim Club!" He declared, snuggling my head as if it was a gigantic piece of marshmallow or something.

"...Hazuki-san, let go of my head please."

"No!"

"Hazuki-san-"

"Nooooo!"

"I feel violated and I can't breathe."

With that, he began sliding down until he was hanging off me, hands on my shoulders. I swear I could hear 'eeee eeee eeeee' sounds when he slid down, like the noise a balloon makes when you rub it against glass. Students were giving us weird looks as they passed us in the second floor corridor. They're probably wondering why a First Year male student is dangling off a Second Year female student like a piece of jewelry. This is bad. I need to diffuse the situation before any weird rumors spark from this encounter. With that in mind, I tried to quickly straighten my long, baggy cardigan while trying to make sure my skirt was still secure on my waist before I grunted out, "Hazuki-san."

"Yes, Su-chan?"

"You're in public."

"Yes, I know, and I don't care!" He wailed loudly, before he began swinging himself to and fro like a pendulum and I found myself being dragged along with the momentum unwillingly. "I want Su-chan to join! It'll be so much fun if we had a new team member!"

"I thought you just wanted me to be the poolguard."

"Yeah, but that means you'll also be a member of our club! And I suppose the official title would be 'lifeguard'."

"Will I have to wear a swimsuit? Will I have to swim?"

"Well, if someone's drowning, I guess you could point to them and wave at one of us and we'll go and get them out of the water."

"...If that's the case then I sound like a pretty crappy lifeguard."

"Hehe, I was kidding! Of course you'll have to do some swimming at some point. Please think about it! We would really like it if we had someone to keep watch over the pool while we practise!"

"In other words, you want someone to watch in case someone pees in the pool again. I already told you guys I'm on the case."

"How's it looking?"

"Hm, I have three suspects in mind. It's not pretty. I just need more evidence and then we can put a stop to the serial urinator."

"Yay!"

Nagisa's happy-happy rainbow unicorn cupcake teddybear and sparkles demeanor was starting to bug me. "...You're the most hyper person I've ever met...it's scary."

He grinned widely in response, "Me? _Scary?_ No way! It's the swimming! It's good for you, Su-chan! Good for your soul! So jooooooooin!"

"No!" I barked, "What part of 'No' do you not understand?"

"But it'll be fun!"

"I'm already in a club!"

"What club?"

"Art club."

There was a few moments of silence, but then Nagisa said with a firm nod, "You can always change clubs."

"Hazuki-san!" I exclaimed helplessly at the boy's determination, "I can't just do that! And I've been a member of the art club since First Year! Don't make me say it!"

Nagisa glanced up at me, "Say what?"

"Don't make me! I'm warning you!" I yelled as threateningly as I could but it seemed to have no effect on Nagisa at all.

He looked genuinely confused, however, "What are you talking about?"

"Swimming!"

"...Huh?"

"I don't like it!" _HAH! There, I said it!_

There was a slightly exaggerated, shocked gasp from Nagisa's end once I'd blurted that piece out. He sounded shocked that I'd said such a thing. I merely returned his gobsmacked expression with a finger-tilt of my glasses, pushing them further over my eyes before letting out a well-deserved huff for the situation coupled with a nod to finalize the validity of my statement. Nagisa still did not let go of me, with his arms on my shoulders and legs now splayed over the floor. It was all very strange, really. I hardly knew this kid and here he was acting as if we'd known each other since...well, forever.

"...You're just saying that." He said, pouting.

"Not everyone has to like swimming, you know."

"But if you tried it, maybe you would like it?"

"What do you mean 'if I tried it'? Of course I've tried it, and I don't like it. I don't like swimming."

Another gasp. "But yesterday Haru-chan had to save you-"

Sighing gently, I uttered out, "I can swim, Hazuki-san. If you didn't notice, those girls were constantly dunking me under the water with a scrub brush at my head. I didn't get a chance to get away."

"Really?" Nagisa gushed, his eyes sparkling under the corridor light. He had the mood recovery ability of a rocking daruma doll. It's like, no matter how hard you beat it down, it just keeps springing back up. "So, how good are you at swimming?"

"I don't know. I don't compete in relays like you guys. I just swim. I don't know how good I am." I said, shrugging. Hmm, I need to find a way to get rid of Nagisa, as much as I don't like using that word. He's not a pest or anything, but his wanting me to join the club was a little overly persistent for my liking. Suddenly, an idea sprung in my mind, igniting as brightly as a lightbulb. "Aha! Feign inferiority and encourage enemy arrogance..." Pause. "Crap, did I just say that out loud?"

"Haha!" Nagisa laughed, and my face went red when I threw my gaze down to him.

"...Don't laugh! It's a quote from Sun Tzu's '_The Art of War_'. He was a wise man." I said, my face was reddening furiously, "Never mind; you know what? I've had a change of heart. You've convinced me! Take me to your leader!"

"Really! Oh, wow! I knew you'd think it about it!" He exclaimed happily at my revelation; I cringed slightly. Huh, so Nagisa's pretty gullible after all. "To the rooftop!" He cheered, pointing to the stairs that would lead to the top floor. I followed the direction of where his finger was pointing to, then turned to him with an eyebrow raised.

"...Uh...Aren't you going to get off me? My neck's getting sore..."

"No way!"

"Eh, excuse me, but I'm not carrying a _boy_ up to the rooftop."

"Hehe~" He giggled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said, a vein was about to pop in my head, "Are you going to let go of me? No? Huh, I'll shake you off! No, I'll throw you off! How about that? Yeah, not so tough and mighty now, are ya?" I tried to throw him off me but he just held on tighter and began laughing loudly. Like really, REALLY loudly.

"Again! Again! Higher! Wheee!"

"What are you, five?!" I barked, clearly enraged and frustrated that he was actually _enjoying _this, "Get off! Alright, now I'm mad! You have to the count of three to let go, okay? Or else you're gonna be in for a world of hurt! Don't say I didn't warn you! One! Twoooo! Two and a quarter! Two and a half! Two and...Two and three quarters! _Three_!"

Still, Nagisa did nothing despite my elongated countdown and I was about to roar in fury and throw him against a wall or something if the tight space of the corridor granted it, but then he said: "...You're funny, Su-chan. I don't know why people say you're a gloomy, boring person."

Yowch! Right in the schnoz! I went still for a second, then glanced down,and sighed. "...I dunno." I muttered defeatedly, before I glanced at the ground dejectedly once more, "...I guess I am kinda gloomy...Nothing ever goes right for me...Sometimes I wonder why I'm even here...I got 3 out of 25 for my math test last week...I got chased by a squirrel the other day when I was walking through the park...a seagull pooped on my head on Monday...and no matter how hard I try, I can't beat my brothers at Mario Kart..."

"Sounds like you don't have the best of luck."

I sighed loudly.

Nagisa blinked several times, then grinned widely at me when he noticed how downtrodden I appeared, "But then it's probably because people just haven't even spoken to you before like we have!"

"Nhhgh..."

"You should smile more, too!"

"Oh, and I suppose I should also dye my hair blond, cut it short and start jumping around and hugging random strangers?"

Nagisa blinked at me again with those massive eyes of his. "...Haaah!" He suddenly giggled, "You're funny, Su-chan. If you started doing that, people are going to mistake you for me."

I grumbled loudly. Nagisa was impervious to my cynicism and crude jokes. There's a first.

"Come on, Su-chan! At least try swim club? For a day?"

"...Alright, fine, let's go see your leader...Where is he? Rooftop, right?" I said, and he nodded furiously; Nagisa didn't seem intent on letting go _at all_, as I trudged towards the stairs and took the first step, still with the blond hanging off me.

Things were a lot simpler before yesterday. Sure, I'd met the Iwatobi swim club poster boys...now one of them won't leave me alone just because he wants me to join their club. I've never felt so much pressure just to_ join a club_. I really was in the art club. I draw cups and spoons and pots and flowers whenever I go (it's a lot more fun than I make it sound, really). They tried to get Mr Blue to join too, but to no avail. I think it would've been weird if he joined art club because it doesn't seem to fit him. Anyway, Nagisa really should've checked with me first if I enjoyed swimming in the first instance. Not everyone shares their passion. That's why they're the founding members of the club, durhh. Other members are only in it to do some extracurricular activity, hang out, swim and just basically...well, have fun. Just because I clean the pools and do a good job of it doesn't mean I want to join them and start swimming.

"Oh, hey, if it isn't Subaru-chan! Nagisa, you're here too!" said Hot, Gentle and Green, greeting us warmly.

Crap. I've forgotten his name even though we're apparently in the same class. I made a half-baked guess, placing a finger on my lip in thought. "Uh...Ryugazaki...?"

"Nope, I'm Tachibana Makoto, and this is Ryugazaki Rei." Mr Green said, whilst Tall, Dark and Geeky stood beside him with his nose in a book about swimming. Meanwhile, Cool, Blue and Sexy merely stared off into the distance in his seat beside Mr Green, clearly uninterested in my sudden arrival. He was too busy munching on a sandwich to have noticed me. The contents of the sandwich closely resembled a piece of grilled fish. I heard a rumor that all the dude ate was mackerel, whether it was grilled, steamed, boiled or fried, even for breakfast. I'm surprised he hadn't actually become a mackerel yet at this rate.

"Oh, sorry, Tachibana-san." I said; I had to shield my eyes as I entered the rooftop, the intense afternoon sunlight stinging my eyes. "That's right, we're in the same class..."

"No worries." Tachibana said cheerfully.

"Hello, Mitsushige-senpai." said tall, dark and geeky, swerving his eyes from the glossy printed pages to me.

"Hello, Ryugazaki-san," I replied.

"And this is Nanase Haruka. You didn't get a proper introduction yesterday."

I paled as Tachibana gestured to Mr Blue beside him. Ah! It was the guy who performed CPR on me! Oh, this is so embarrassing! Out of courtesy, I gave a polite wave and croaked out, "...U-uh...Hi."

He continued eating, staring into space. I blinked blankly in return and lowered my hand._ Guess he's too cool to talk to me?_ I watched the way he was just eating; he was eating so casually, too. _He looks like he's got a lot on his mind. Now that I think about it, Nanase Haruka's the quietest boy in class. I wonder what he's thinking about. He must have old man thoughts. _As if reading my mind, Mr Blue suddenly turned his head towards me and those clear, penetrating Bambi eyes of his instantly met mine. My heart made a fierce lurch in my chest and I gasped and quickly grabbed thick bundles of my long hair from the side of my face, covering myself with them like curtains over a window whilst trembling on the spot like a leaf. _Eep! Don't look at me with such eyes..._

Nanase Haruka had this emo thing going on, with his hair neat and flat against his head, combed to one side. He's *gulp* hot. I must've looked pretty silly, hiding behind my hair, but I couldn't help myself. The back of my throat suddenly went dry as I recalled yesterday's events and how this dude ended up with his lips over mine. I peeped out through the cracks of my hair and my gaze unintentionally landed on his mouth and my face went warm. He must've noticed then since he looked away.

"Subaru-chan?" Tachibana was quick to break the monotony.

I shakily peeped out again and noticed that Mr Blue was no longer looking at me with his doe-like gaze that could launch a thousand ships. Phew! For some reason, I felt so powerless yet I was mesmerized under his gaze. I let go of my hair and they went back to hiding most of my face from view. "What are you guys doing here anyway?" I said quickly.

"We always eat lunch in this spot. Want to join us?" Tachibana asked, plucking up a piece of fried omelette from his neatly packed lunchbox before grabbing a small fish-shaped plastic bottle that was carrying some soya sauce. I ogled at the rice balls and onigiri and the happy smiley anpan faces and then I unconsciously licked my lips and caught a whiff of DAT SMELL and mmmmm, it looks so yummy, and then Tachibana was squirting some sauce over the rice and –

_Tachibana suddenly placed a hand over his forehead with a heavy sigh and glanced at my direction, "Oh! Subaru-chan...I've been so clumsy...I've gone and spilled soya sauce all over my face and body...I'm all hot and sticky..." He proceeds to unbutton the first few buttons of his flawless white shirt that was stained a deep dark brown, where the rest of the soya sauce was dribbling down over his toned chest and towards his navel, his face is all flustered and warm as he looks at me, eyes shimmering with longing and want, "Subaru-chan...I don't have a tissue...do you think you could...anou...do you think you could lick-_

"Nooo! Stoooop!" I yelled, squeezing my eyes shut and clutching at my head.

The rooftops suddenly went silent following my outburst.

I re-opened my eyes to see all four boys looking at me peculiarly - even Nanase, who had actually stopped making out with his mackerel sandwich just to stare at me again.

"...Are you okay?" Tachibana asked; he was still holding the fish-shaped soya sauce bottle.

Ryugazaki murmured, "...Perhaps we should take Mitsushige-san to the nurse just in case she has not properly recovered from yesterday's incident. Near-fatal drowning incidents can cause many undesirable symptoms including confusion, abdominal distention, restlessness, chest pain and lethargy...Clearly she seems to be exhibiting one or two symptoms."

"Ah, actually...no, I'm fine, and n-no thank you – I mean, about the lunch offer, I mean...oops, I-I just said that, I'm such an idiot, I mean – _oh god, I just did it again_!" I stumbled over my own words gracelessly, earning more awkward looks from the Iwatobi poster boys. I squeezed my eyes shut and babbled out, "I-I've already had my lunch...So, no thank you, but thank you for asking!" Then I threw my head down in a deeply apologetic bow. This is so strange; I have three older brothers at home but I'm so nervous around these boys. I wasn't even like this yesterday, either! I don't know what's going on, and I don't know what's happening to me, but I'm making a fool out of myself in front of Nanase Haruka and his friends!

"Okay, but you don't have to yell; we hear you loud and clear." Tachibana replied, chuckling whilst I sweated buckets. Tachibana was as cheerful as ever despite my earlier mistake with the name and that awkward episode. Or maybe he was just oblivious and being friendly. "Next time, I'll pack more so Subaru-chan can join us too."

I gawked at him, my gut was suddenly scrunching and tightening up painfully as I contemplated his words. Ah, now I remember. Tachibana Makoto was the sweetest, nicest boy in 2-1. No wonder he's the most popular guy in our class and the Captain of the Swim Club to boot. He had a smile that would win over thousands of hearts. He was also the kind of guy a girl's father would like to know who their daughter was dating.

"Minna-san! Su-chan's gonna be our new member!" Nagisa finally exclaimed with a grin, "That's why I brought her here!"

"A-actually, I came to drop this off," I said hastily as I regained my usual self, having to take in several deep breaths while I was at it, "It clearly belongs to you. Okay, bye-!" Without a second to spare, I peeled Nagisa's octopus arms off me before spinning quickly on my heel to rush back down the stairs, but then - "Ahhh! Shoe!" I crawled back to the step I'd just hopped over to pick up my shoe that'd slipped off my foot on the step and glanced up – again, I saw the boys looking at me strangely – I quickly hurried away after snatching my shoe as quickly as I could.

"Su-chan!" Nagisa was yelling after me as I trampled down the steps without a second glance over my shoulder with my one shoe clutched tightly in hand, "Su-chan! Oh well. And I was so close, too..."

"What were you trying to do, Nagisa?" Tachibana asked, as Nagisa waddled over and dropped beside the group, sulking. Before long, he grabbed one of the onigiris and stuffed it into his mouth without much caution.

"I wanted Su-chan to join the club but she says she doesn't like swimming..." Nagisa said with a shrug, his mouth full of rice.

"Aw, that's a shame."

"Su-chan's really friendly," Nagisa added, "She's super nice!"

"Yeah, Subaru-chan isn't as gloomy as everyone says she is."

The blond nodded furiously in agreement with Tachibana's statement, "That's what I said too! She didn't believe me though. What do you think, Rei-chan?"

"Her behavior is erratic; symptoms of a closet psychopath." Ryugazaki declared, placing down the magazine before taking the seat beside Nagisa.

"Hmmm, that's true, Rei-chan! She was really jumpy for some reason...but I don't think she's a psychopath."

"Maybe she's just shy."

"Perhaps," Ryugazaki began, "I shall observe her, study her, and compile a report of her character, background and personality."

Tachibana chuckled awkwardly, "Haha! That's funny, but I don't think that will be necessary." Then he nudged at Nanase next for his opinion, "Ne, what'd you think of her, Haru-chan?" He asked, smiling at the quieter boy.

However, Nanase merely swerved his eyes to Tachibana's direction after a few seconds of silence. "...Drop the _'-chan'_."

* * *

Hehe, there goes chapter 2 :) Um...review please? What do you think of Subaru so far? The plot's kinda typical at the moment but I'm eager to know your thoughts :)


	3. Joining the Swim Club

Hey hey, I'm so sorry about the late update. I really struggled with this chapter for some reason and no matter how many times I rewrote it (I have about 6 versions of this...), it STILL didn't feel right but in the end I just stuck with this version and totally gave up on it, and because I've made everyone wait so long for the next chapter, I've squished in so many things into this one chapter too.

PS. The first part is not in Subaru's POV.

* * *

**JOINING THE SWIM CLUB**

Haru was floating on his back in the water when he heard a door slamming open nearby.

Next, he heard quick footsteps coming towards his direction and he opened one eye; glancing over, he saw that two girls had arrived at the pool, giggling to each other. They didn't seem to have noticed him because he was too far away, but he saw that they were holding several items in their hands before tossing them into the water, their peals of laughter growing louder and louder. Without another word, they stalked off after throwing everything into the water, still laughing.

Haru moved upright, swimming towards the end of the pool. He recognized the girls from last time; they were the ones who couldn't stop talking to Makoto and had then pushed Mitsushige Subaru into the pool. He saw that the two troublesome girls had dumped a schoolbag and a pair of shoes into the water. The bag had been deliberately opened, all contents spilling out and all heavier items had sunk to the bottom of the pool. He turned the bag the other side and saw a label. It said: _Mitsushige Subaru_ which didn't really surprise him. He cast his gaze to the other items, then swam over and collected them. On the surface, he gathered a pair of shoes, socks, a few jotters, some schoolbooks (including Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'), a cosmetic wash bag, a spray can of pink hair dye, a banana and a packet of tissues along with a fridge magnet (he had no idea why there was a fridge magnet in the bag). Diving to the bottom of the pool, he gathered a bunch of keys and a coin purse.

Once he resurfaced, he heard the door to the outdoor pool slamming open again. Hurried footsteps rushed towards his direction and there stood Mitsushige Subaru, looking all sweaty and disheveled with her long brown hair covering her face. She was panting heavily, glancing around the pool, before she spotted Haru in the water.

At first, they stared at each other in silence, then ultimately, he saw that her face had reddened considerably. "Oh...hey, Nanase-san," She muttered, grabbing at the sides of her hair and pulling the thick locks over her face; he had no idea why she was cowering behind her hair but she looked incredibly ridiculous, "There's no swim club today. What are you doing here?"

Instead of answering her question, he uttered, "...These belong to you." before offering her damp schoolbag and equally damp shoes.

He could see her peering at him through little cracks in her hair. "AH! My stuff!" She exclaimed, reaching forwards for her belongings, "I was wondering where they went..." She added, cradling her bag in her arms. "Thanks..."

Haru said nothing as he offered her bag and shoes to her, having to get out of the pool in progress. She took one cautious step backwards as he climbed out, soaking wet and wearing nothing but his swimming trunks nonetheless. Automatically, she closed her eyes and blindly took her bag off him as he shook his hair free of excess water, then she quickly checked if all possessions were in her bag, "Thanks." She muttered again, giving him a bow before she began to loop the straps over her shoulder despite the fact that the bag was sopping wet. She took her shoes off him too and held them in her hand, waddling out of the pool without another word.

Later on, Haru left the pool and got changed into his school uniform in the changing room; he was the only student to have been using the swimming pool after school but outside, he could hear the communal hairdryers being used and he spotted Mitsushige drying her socks with one of the hairdryers. She was too engrossed in drying her socks to notice him but when he passed her with his bag slung over his shoulder, he could hear her singing to herself in a language he wasn't familiar with despite the noise emitting from the dryer.

"He's climbin' in your windows, he's snatchin' your people up, tryna rape 'em so y'all need to hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your kids, hide your wife... and hide your husband, cuz they're rapin' errbody out there. You don't have to come and confess, we're lookin' for you, we gon' find youuuu, we gon' find youuuu, so you can run and tell that, run and tell that, run and tell that, homeboy, home, home, home - ARGHHHH! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STANDING THERE?!" She screamed, eyes going wide once she caught sight of Haru standing there, watching her.

He didn't even want to ask what song she was singing or what she was singing about, but he had a hunch that it was something in English. "...I'm going home." He uttered, turning away.

She held the dryer to herself tightly as he sidled past her, "O-okay, see you tomorrow, Nanase-san..."

* * *

_Subaru's POV._

For some reason, I want to join the swim club now.

I left school feeling as though maybe I shouldn't have rejected Nagisa's offer after all. Nagisa was nice, and the others seem friendly, too. The swim club was also...interesting, and they really appreciate all my hard work and effort. I was riding my bike home the entire time thinking about today's events, and before I knew it, I had cycled all the way down the route by the sea and to the _Iwatobi Ramen_ restaurant without even realizing. Before I entered the establishment, however, I locked my bike at the stand provided and stood outside with a pocket mirror in hand. Watching my reflection, I brushed my hair to one side and clipped it away from my eyes, then proceeded to enter the establishment.

"Hey everyone, I'm-" I began, only to be interrupted by a loud cry of '_No!_' and I glanced over to see a group of three men behind the restaurant kitchen stuck in heated debate. It was my dad, facing against Shiki and Kai, whilst Ichiro stood in between them, holding his hands up in a feeble attempt to pacify whatever the situation was; it looked hairy.

"Shiki! Kai!" Dad was yelling angrily with clenched fists, "How dare you defy me! I am your father!"

"No way, dad!" screamed Shiki, crossing his arms over his chest with a deep frown.

"But you must!"

Shiki added furiously in response, "How many times do we have to say it to get it through your thick skull, old man?!"

"Yeah, you tell him, Shiki!" exclaimed Kai, before he too, copied Shiki's action and crossed his arms, "We're not dressing up as squid for the festival! Get someone else to do it! Ask Subaru!"

"No way! Your imouto already has a job! Now it's your turn to do something for the family!"

Meanwhile, Ichiro (who'd been ignored for some time) finally chirped up, "Everyone, please, calm down..." He began, but this only served the twins and dad to argue even loudly over each other, and he sighed before he spotted me standing limply at the doorway. "Oh, Subaru...you're here."

"Hey, Ichiro." I said, having to speak louder than usual as dad and the twins continued to yell and shout over each other, "What's going on?"

Ichiro sidestepped away from the bickering group over to me. "...Dad wants Shiki and Kai to dress up as squid for this year's festival...I'm supposed to dress up as a fishball, but that's okay with me..."

I let out a laugh, "Oh, really?"

"Subaru!" Dad finally noticed me and dashed towards my direction, stopping by my side before planting his hands firmly on my shoulders, "Subaru! Your brothers aren't listening to me! Do something!"

"Dad-" I started, but he turned away to glare at Shiki and Kai.

"Minions!" Dad yelled accusingly at them, "How dare you! EVIL! Mutiny! Traitors! Is this how your okaa-san and I raised you? What have we ever done to deserve this?! I've failed as a father!" Dad proceeded to wail in dramatic fashion, before he glanced up again, having spotted a pair of high school boys who had entered the shop; immediately he stood up, straightening himself and clearing his throat. "IRRASHAIMASE! Take a seat, I'll be with you immediately-" He turned to the boys expectantly, "What are you doing still standing there? Can't you see there are customers? Ike, ike, ike! Not you, Subaru, you stay put. Ichi! Shiki! Kai! Ike! We'll continue where we left off after you serve our most valued customers!"

Ichi, Shiki and Kai exchanged half-lidded glances at each other, then sighed. "Whatever..." They mumbled.

Dad turned to me next whilst Shiki handed them napkins and chopsticks and Kai handed them menus. "Subaru, take a seat over there and wait for otou-san to finish serving the customers, okay? Then I'll cook something nice for you to eat." He finished with a wide smile.

"Okay, dad..." I waddled over to an empty four-seater and plopped down, waiting.

This is my family. My family consists of my dad, my mom and my three older brothers – my eldest brother is Ichiro and he's the tallest in the family. Then there is Kai and Shiki; they're twins, and they look really eerily identical with their short brown hair and dark eyes. The only way you can really tell the difference is that despite their identical hairstyle, Shiki has his bangs swept to the left whilst Kai has his bangs brushed to the right.

When my mother had me, she was expecting another boy so she named me _Subaru_, but my family don't really call me that...because I'm the only girl and I'm the youngest, they sometimes call me _hime_...which is really embarrassing (...and not to mention, stupid) but my mom was really happy she'd finally had a daughter but at the same time, it's kind of annoying because my mother can be too overbearing and suffocating, especially when it comes to me. Every time she comes back from one of her long business trips, she brings me so many pink and girly things that I don't even like or use. When I was younger, she'd dress me up in these frilly dresses, tying bows and ribbons in my hair and making me wear silly hats whilst carrying those large, swirly, multicolored lollipops. I looked like a really bad loli. Whatever you do, please don't look at our family album, especially pictures of me in my younger years. It's really embarrassing.

So, my mom works for some fancy corporation and she's always away on business trips, usually to America. My dad looks after us most of the time; he owns a restaurant called _Iwatobi Ramen_, the most popular ramen joint in Iwatobi. He has a bad habit of yelling too loudly sometimes and calling us his slaves or underlings or his favorite, _minions_. He also has to keep coming up with new ideas and ramen recipes to keep business going, since so many restaurants are opening and stuff. We're facing tough competition from the local pizzeria at the moment. I think the newest flavor ramen my dad came up with was Wasabi flavor which wasn't really a hit (I didn't say they were **great** ideas – sorry, dad. I love you but your ideas suck). Sometimes, dad gets us involved in his weird ideas, too.

Overall, our seafood ramen is a greater hit with tourists and locals alike and overall, our restaurant looks like a teahouse, with mahogany wood tables and benches. Dad hung all these Japanese paintings up on the walls and red paper lanterns at the door and inside. There's a bar seating area where I usually sit with my brothers and then there's a few four-seaters and small booths around. The kitchen's in the back and its an open area so you can see the chefs cooking. It isn't really big, but it's situated in the middle of town so it can get really busy during weekends. During weekdays, as dad says, it's a little quiet, so I pop in here from time to time. Plus, I get free ramen, but I'm kind of sick of it now.

Ichiro is 27 years old. He helps at our restaurant full-time but dad's really strict on him since he's probably going to end up taking over once dad's retires so it's crucial he gets the recipes and the business up and running the right way. Ichiro is really nice to me. He teaches me math when he has the time and he always checks up on me to see how I'm getting on with school and stuff. Shiki and Kai are both 24 years old. They're studying in university at the moment in the next town and they have to get the train every morning. Shiki's nicer than Kai, because he doesn't laugh at me when I lose at Mario Kart, and Kai's the one who always orders me around and makes me do his chores.

Then there's me. As I said before, I'm the youngest in the family. I'm 16 years old, and I currently attend Iwatobi High as a second year student. There's not much about me that you should know. I'm just a scrawny girl who gets mediocre grades at school. Oh, and I have a lot of hair and I wear glasses, too...if that's uh...interesting.

Once Shiki and Kai had finished tending to the customers, they took the empty seats beside me in the four-seater table and I watched as Ichiro went to greet the boys politely with a cheque book in hand to take their order, but they merely glanced around the area anxiously.

"Anou...is Ramen-chan not in today?" I heard one of the boys asking Ichiro.

Ichiro let out a little laugh and rubbed at the back of his head, "Gomen nasai, Ramen-chan is only with us during the weekends. Now, what would you like to drink?"

"A diet coke and an orangina please."

"Sure, and have you decided what you'd like to eat?"

"I'd like the chicken ramen."

"I'll have the beef, please."

"So that's one chicken and one beef. It'll be about fifteen minutes."

"Great, thank you."

I cringed as I watched the boys thanked Ichiro. Meanwhile, Kai turned to me, grinning wickedly, but I merely snorted and ignored him, turning away with my nose in the air whilst Shiki looked at the customers with a lopsided expression. Ichiro went to the bar to complete the drinks order whilst dad went to cook. I turned away from the high school students and from the corner of my eye, I glanced over at Shiki and Kai.

"So, dad wants you guys to dress up as squid. And Ichiro's going to be a fishball." I said.

"Yeah." said Kai.

"Are you going to?"

"Heck, no." replied Shiki.

"Why not? It's squidtastic, baby!"

At the same time, Shiki and Kai said, "Urh...keep your crap jokes to yourself, Su."

Suddenly, Nanase Haruka flicked into my mind. I couldn't help but think about the Iwatobi poster boys. They're so fit. They're fitter than Shiki and Kai combined. I'm not saying my brothers are pudgy or anything, but there's such a big difference compared to Nanase, Tachibana, Nagisa and Ryugazaki. Hell, Tachibana's built like the Great Wall of China. My brothers are just...I don't know, but it's kind of obvious they've never worked out or done much exercise. Now that I think about it, as much as I was awkward around the Iwatobi swim club boys earlier on... they're still guys, and I've always thought that I get on a little better with boys than girls. It's weird...

"Hey, hime."

"What?"

Kai was glancing at me from his seat across the table, "Why're you looking at me and Shiki like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're thinking of something, aren't you?"

"...Nothing, just thinking about some boys in my class." I said, "B-but I-I don't mean it in that way!"

Kai's lips cracked into a wide grin. "Ooooooh, who is it, hime? Who's the lucky boy? Are you gonna take him home and show him to us and dad?"

"Nooooo!" I howled, although Nanase Haruka's face suddenly sprang up in my mind again for some reason. I shook my head wildly, trying not to think about him, "It's not like that at all! I just met these guys from the swim club, that's all. They really want me to join."

"Huh?" Shiki said, "Why? I thought you were in the art club."

"They want me to be their poolguard."

"'Poolguard'?"

"Actually, the official title would be 'Lifeguard'." I said, and I mustered a thin smile at my brothers, "I want to join. It sounds like fun."

"What?! You!? A lifeguard?" Kai spluttered, "...Are you sure it's not because you want to peek at naked guys?"

My face red went at his accusation. "Eh? No! N-no, of course not! I can be a lifeguard! I'll be a good one! I can do it! And the guys in the club seem to be really nice people, too. They say I do a good job cleaning the pool and making it nice and sparkly. They seem to really appreciate what I do for them; I make a really good pool cleaner. I was actually thinking of joining...It sounds more interesting than art club."

"Actually, that does sound like a good idea," Ichi said, passing us with the tray carrying the diet coke and the orangina, "You should be in a club where you get to be more active, Su."

I nodded, agreeing with Ichi. "Yeah! Ichi-nii is right as usual."

Whilst Ichi smiled at me and sauntered over to the customers with their drinks, dad frowned and barked out, "WHAT." He'd been eavesdropping our conversation the entire time, throwing a glimpse over his shoulder as he cooked, "No. No daughter of mine is going to get her hands dirty and be a pool caretaker. Whatever club it is, you're not joining! I forbid you to join! What will happen if your okaa-san found out that her precious hime was cleaning swimming pools? The answer is NO!"

"But dad-"

"No! And that's final!"

...For some reason I wanted to join more than ever...

* * *

**A FEW DAYS LATER**

"Su-chan!"

I glanced up from the tile I was cleaning, just in time to see Nagisa leaping towards me again. Was I heartless enough to move deliberately and let him crash onto the ground? I guess not. I stayed still and let him glomp me, even though he was only adorned in his swimming trunks, in which, if he wasn't careful, could accidentally slip off despite how tight-fitting they looked. I glanced over to see Nanase, Tachibana and Ryugazaki at the opposite end of the pool, standing in a small group along with the other junior members of the club. They were too far away that I couldn't see what they were saying. I also saw their manager, a female red-haired first year student called Matsuoka Gou, who was going over their training regime for today's lesson. I haven't had the opportunity to speak to her yet.

"Su-chan, you're here!" Nagisa exclaimed, wrapping his arms and legs around me as per usual. I averted attention from the swim club to the blond who was clutching my head. This would be the second time I'd been glomped but I still wasn't used to this, "But it's not even Thursday!"

I shrugged. "...The pool gets dirty very easy..."

"Sugoi! You care so much for our club! Anou...you still haven't told us if you'll join."

I hesitated slightly, "Um...well...I...I don't know. No, I guess..."

"What? B-but why?!" Nagisa howled.

"Um...b-because I..." _Because my dad said no? _I cringed slightly, before I noticed that Nagisa was suddenly gazing intently at me. "W-what...?" I croaked out, realizing how dangerously intent he was staring. "What? Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

"Anou, Su-chan...when Haru-chan saved you, your hair was...I mean, I think, if you brushed your hair back..."

My face reddened slightly in response, "W-what?! No! Stop! Leave my hair alone!"

"But-"

"Nooo! No touchy!"

"But Su-chan-"

"Nagisa!" exclaimed a familiar voice. We both stopped to glance over, only to see Tachibana waving at us with a friendly smile on his face, "Nagisa! Come on! Everyone's waiting for you!"

"Hai!" The blond responded with equal, cheerful vigor, waving at Tachibana in return, before he turned to me and sighed. "Mako-chan's calling. You'll still consider the offer, right?"

"Okay, okay. Just let go of my head. Please." I said quickly; perhaps it was a good idea to pacify him so he would let go of me and I could breathe properly.

"Yay!" He cheered, and he let go hastily, leaping off me before jogging towards the far end of the pool to join the rest of his friends.

I watched Nagisa, clutching the scrub brush to myself. The rest of the swim club began to get ready for practice, using the shallow end of the pool for warm up. I spotted Tachibana and Ryugazaki stretching near the fence. Nagisa was talking to Nanase, who looked bored, as usual. I never noticed it, but Nanase has really good posture despite being a mopey-looking, quiet emo boy. Hmm, I wonder what I'm trying to get at here. I continued in my scrubbing duties, trying to clean at the little strips in between the tiles before I heard obnoxious giggling nearby, and I glanced up.

Oh, it was those girls again – the ones who pushed me into the pool the other day. I wonder why they weren't with the rest of the team. They weren't alone; they were speaking to some boys, huddling in a corner. Flirting, judging by the looks of it. Hmph, I have nothing to do with that. I saw the girls giving me weird looks before they whispered to each other and began sniggering. A comment about me, no doubt. _Never mind_, I thought_, just ignore them. _A while later and I saw one of the boys pick up one of the girls, lifting her over his shoulder. She began screaming immediately, and everyone glanced up, momentarily distracted from their endeavors.

"Nooo! Stop, Masato! Stop!" The girl over his shoulder was screaming, beating her clenched fists over his back.

The boy called Masato ignored her and in seconds, he'd tossed her into the pool, laughing. Hmm, the classic throw-you-into-the-water-pool-prank. I thought that was only popular in America? Oh well. The girl resurfaced, kicking and splashing helplessly. To my surprise, the other girl who hadn't been thrown into the pool quickly rushed to the pool edge and began shrieking, hopping around and flailing wildly. "Tomoe-chan!" She screamed, whilst the boys merely laughed and watched at the struggling girl in the water. "You morons! That isn't funny!" Glancing around again, she began squealing, "Someone help! Tomoe can't swim!"

Uh-oh. Trouble. From the corner of my eye, I could see the swim club jittering into action; Tachibana and Nanase were already swimming towards the girl...but they were too far away; I was the closest. It was then Nagisa's words echoed in the depths of my mind: _If someone's drowning, I guess you could point to them and wave at one of us and we'll go and get them out of the water_.

_But...doesn't that mean I'll make a pretty crappy lifeguard?_

Without thinking twice, I abandoned the scrub brush, dumping it to the side before I jumped into the pool. I'm not sure how I jumped in as I didn't have the same technique or finesse as Nanase or the others so it must've been a rather clumsy attempt as I felt the impact of making contact with the water from all four corners. There was a loud 'splash!' and my whole vision went blue as I re-opened my eyes, my lips sealed shut as I held my breath, the world going silent. All I could see was the flailing girl in the water. I quickly made my way towards her, pushing through the water with my arms and legs and as soon as I reached her, I grabbed her arm and began dragging her towards the pool edge, making sure that her head was at least poking out of the water so she could breathe. I deposited her close to the tiled wall so she could grab on for support once we neared the edge of the pool.

She stopped hacking and coughing and stared at me, wide-eyed as she clung onto the walls. "...T-thanks..." She muttered shakily, as her friend went to her aid and lifted her out of the water. I watched as her friend helped her out of the pool, just as Nagisa, Tachibana and Nanase swam over, stopping in front of me. Ryugazaki and Gou were rushing towards us, along with the other members of the swim club.

"Subaru-chan!" Tachibana exclaimed in surprise.

I glanced at the trio. "...I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was thinking-"

Nagisa was quick to comment on the situation, "Why are you apologizing?! That was great! Ne, ne! It must be those poolguard instincts of yours finally kicking in!" He exclaimed, while Nanase merely remained submerged in the pool with only his eyes and nose poking out of the surface of the water.

Finally, Gou and Ryugazaki arrived; the redhead proceeded to brandish a towel to the shivering Tomoe who wrapped the towel around herself. "What is going on here?" Gou exclaimed angrily, before she threw a well-deserved glare at the boys who'd thrown the girl into the pool, "That kind of behavior is unacceptable!"

The boys merely scratched at the back of their heads awkwardly. "...It was just for fun, ya know..."

"Yeah, how were we supposed to know that Tomoe couldn't swim?" One of the boys protested, and the girl named Tomoe said nothing except huddle underneath the blanket Gou had given her, glancing down at the ground, nibbling down on her bottom lip noiselessly.

"Hmph! It doesn't matter! You are in a lot of trouble!" Gou proceeded to scold them furiously, and the boys winced under the tone of her voice. Yikes, never incur the wrath of the swim club manager, I guessed. "Rei-kun, Nagisa-kun, can you take them to the changing room for now? Amakata-sensei will deal with them later."

"Okay~" Nagisa said, wading towards the edge of the pool before climbing out, "Come on, Rei-chan!"

"S-sure..." Ryugazaki muttered, pushing his glasses further up his nose, and the two boys proceeded to escort the two girls and the troublesome guys away from the pool, leaving Gou, Nanase, Tachibana and myself. Nanase swam over to the edge of the pool but remained in the water, whilst Tachibana and I swam over and climbed out; I glanced up when I saw an outstretched hand in front of me, realizing that Tachibana was offering a hand to help me up with a gentle smile gracing his face.

I nervously slid my palm into his and he hoisted me out of the water; my uniform was soaking wet and I stood, drenched and soggy. "T-thank you..." I uttered stiffly, as I let go of Tachibana's hand. His hand was so very large and warm. My skirt and socks were heavy, laden with water. I took off one shoe, emptying it of water and sighed before Tachibana joined me, shaking his hair free of water. I think I'd seen Nanase do that before and he looked like he came out of a L'Oreal shampoo advert and I could see that there were literally sparkles surrounding him. Hmm, was it weird that I was thinking about Nanase, even at this moment? Tachibana finally cleared himself of excess water, running his hand through the wet strands and I tried not to look at his rugged, naked chest that was glistening with little beads of water under the gleaming sunlight.

"You're welcome," Tachibana replied, "At least nobody got hurt. Thank goodness Subaru-chan was closeby, I – Oh. Subaru-chan...your nose...you're bleeding again."

I sniffed heavily but it didn't stop the blood from dripping out from one nostril. "Sorry..." I squeaked out, covering my nose with my hands as Gou handed me a tissue. "Thank you."

"Maybe you should go see a doctor?"

"I'm fine." I turned away from him, hastily slotting the tissue up my nose; Nagisa, who was in process of escorting the troublemakers, turned round with a wide grin.

"Hehe, Mako-chan, she's blushing~"

"No, I'm not!" I barked, but this only caused Nagisa to laugh louder as they disappeared into the changing rooms.

"Ah, so you're Subaru-chan." Gou said, smiling at me before she gave me a little grateful bow and I was taken aback by her action that I stepped back slightly, "Thank you so much for all your help; Nagisa's always telling me about how you do a good job of looking after the pool and keep it nice and clean. I'm Matsuoka Gou, the club's manager."

"...Oh, it's nothing. Nice to meet you, Matsuoka-san."

"I'd like it if you joined the club." Gou added.

My eyes went wide immediately, "W-what..." Before I knew it, I'd automatically cast a quick glance to Nanase who was still in the water. I wasn't sure why I did that...

"I'd like it too if Subaru-chan joined." Tachibana chimed in next, and I turned to him, gawping with my mouth half-open. "Ne, Haru-chan? I don't see any harm in Subaru-chan joining. Besides...don't you think the club's livelier if we had another member?"

Nanase said nothing, staring at me with those cool blue eyes of his. I gawked limply at him in return, and then finally, in that quiet voice of his, he muttered, "...Do what you want. I don't care." And then he kicked off from the pool, diving and disappearing under the water's surface.

* * *

Riiiiiight, so there goes chapter 3, which personally I didn't like how it turned out but I had to introduce Subaru's family and also have her sorta join the swim club too all crammed into one chapter. Also...

1. The song Subaru was singing when drying her socks was the youtube song called 'Bed Intruder Song'.

2. "It's squidtastic baby" was a play on a band called Big Bang's song "Its Fantastic Baby" (bad joke i know)

Furthermore, here is a profile is Subaru:

**Name:** Mitsushige Subaru

**Age:** 16

Subaru is a second year student at Iwatobi. She has 3 older brothers (Ichiro, Shiki and Kai), and her father owns the _Iwatobi Ramen Restaurant_. She gets nosebleeds when she sees naked men. She also has a strange fascination with Sun Tzu. Her strongest subject is english whilst her weakest is math. She has a habit of covering her face behind her hair.


	4. Espionage at Samezuka

**ESPIONAGE AT SAMEZUKA**

I blew the whistle that was around my neck and the pool went quiet. "Everybody, stop! You!" I pointed to Tachibana, "Stop back-stroking!" I pointed at Nanase who was merely drifting in the water on his back, "You! Stop floating around!" I pointed at Ryuugazaki next, "You! Stop doing...whatever it is you're doing! It's creepy! Attention, everybody! Achtung! Please get out of the pool! I have an important announcement to make!"

Whilst Nanase did nothing and continued floating on his back like a dead goldfish, Tachibana, Hazuki and Ryugazaki exchanged looks before they ultimately stopped in their trivial, leisurely pursuits and began to swim towards the edge of the pool; Tachibana grabbed one of Nanase's feet and dragged him towards them. Once everyone had climbed out, they stood around me in a semi-circle as I pulled a chalkboard-on-wheels from the side. Gou was helping me, grabbing hold of the other end of the chalkboard.

"Attention!" I said, clapping my hands together whilst Gou went to stand beside Ryugazaki, "As requested by Hazuki-san, I'm not really an official member of the club yet but as the pool's caretaker slash lifeguard, the responsibility of keeping the pool clean and tidy falls in my hands so I've been doing some more investigating and I've put together all the facts. Don't worry, this won't take too long."

"This is about the serial urinator, right, Su-chan?" Nagisa exclaimed; he sounded pretty excited about this.

Meanwhile, Ryugazaki had winced slightly, "...We have got to find a better word than 'urinator'." He muttered, as he pushed his glasses further up over his eyes. "It is not beautiful at all."

"You want a more beautiful word than 'urinator', Rei-chan?" chirped Nagisa, "I know! How about-"

"Please stop."

I watched the group before me steadily, then lifted up Amakata-sensei's teaching cane in hand which I borrowed and pointed it to one of the many photographs I'd stuck to the board with blu-tack. "Suspect Number One." I said, "This is Second Year student Nashimoto-kun from class 2-2 aka Pee-Pee Nashimoto. Every thirty or forty minutes into a lesson, he will always raise his hand and ask to use the bathroom. He's known in class to have an extremely weak bladder and there was a rumor going around that if he can't find a toilet in time, he'll pee anywhere. ANYWHERE."

"That's mean!" Nagisa exclaimed.

"Adolescents can be cruel." Ryugazaki commented. Is it weird that we're in high school and I'm hearing this?

I cleared my throat and moved onto the next picture that was stuck to the board. "Suspect two."

"Who's that?"

"That's a uniform from onii-chan's school." Gou said.

"If you mean Samezuka, you're correct, Matsuoka-san. This is a guy from Samezuka Swim Team. He's a Third Year student and his name is Maeda Shinji. He's known to sabotage the competition using any means necessary. I don't see any reason why he wouldn't want to sabotage our pool too."

"...By peeing in it?" Nagisa said, whilst Ryugazaki shivered uncontrollably.

I shrugged in response.

"But I've never seen him around school." Tachibana replied.

"It's perfectly logical, if a little...improbable." Ryugazaki added.

"Why would someone from onii-chan's school want to sabotage us? We've held several joint practises with them before." Gou remarked.

"You should use more of your sex appeal, Gou-chan!"

Gou's face reddened to a certain extent. "S-stop calling me that, Nagisa!" She yelped, whilst the blond merely giggled in response, "I just remembered: we are holding a relay against their team in a few weeks time."

"Ah, so we are. Who's suspect three?" Tachibana asked, and I pointed to the next picture. "Eh? But that's Coach Sasabe..."

"Yes, indeed, by day, he is your friendly, neighborhood swim coach and part-time pizza delivery man. However, by night, he is..." I left my sentence trailing and pointed to the next picture where a drunken Goro was lying face down in the corner of a bus stop with an empty sake bottle in hand, "Behold! Iwatobi's legendary town drunk!"

Gou gave a little squeak; Nagisa gasped loudly whilst Tachibana slapped a hand over his mouth. Ryugazaki glanced down with a tight frown, the light from the pool reflecting off his glasses and shielding his eyes from our view. Nanase, who hadn't said a word since, merely stared at me with a slightly bored, if not, slant expression. Man, why does this guy look stoned all the time!? Something's not right here!

"...How on earth did you get that picture of Goro-chan?" Nagisa said, examining the photograph intently.

"It wasn't easy, Hazuki-san," I replied, crossing my arms.

"Okay, so now what?"

"I know! Let's split ourselves into three groups – one will keep watch over Pee Pee-san, another will watch over Maeda Shinji from Samezuka, and another will watch over Goro-chan!"

"Good idea, Nagisa."

"...How are we going to decide on groups?"

"Let's draw straws!"

And thus we drew straws. Tachibana went round with plastic straws which were collected into a tub. Everyone drew one with their eyes closed. There would be a total of six straws - two straws would be red, two would be blue, two would be green. Whoever got matching straws of the same color thus formed a pair. Tachibana pulled out a green straw. Nagisa pulled out a red. Gou pulled out a red, also. I pulled out a blue straw. Ryugazaki pulled out a green. That means –

Nanase looked at his blue straw, then at me. I froze up all over with my straw clutched in hand so tightly that it wilted like a flower.

HOLY SHIT!

My partner...  
...my partner is...  
Nanase Haruka.  
The boy who kissed me.

_Not only that, but it was your first kiss, too~_

SHUT UP, BRAIN!

"...Psst, what's wrong with Su-chan? She's suddenly stopped talking and her eyes are all wide like a fish and her lips are all pursed together. She looks funny." Nagisa whispered, nudging at Ryugazaki.

"Perhaps she is currently menstruating."

"Maybe she needs the toilet?"

"I'm fine!" I barked, "And this isn't what menstruating looks like!"

Once I'd yelled that out for the world to hear, I gasped and clamped my hands over my mouth whilst Gou's face went red like a tomato once more. We exchanged glances from the corner of our eyes then meekly threw our gazes to the floor wordlessly. Somehow I'd managed to embarrass us both...

Tachibana began laughing immediately, trying to alleviate the awkward atmosphere I'd unintentionally created, "Haha, okay, that's enough, everyone." Phew! Thank goodness for Tachibana. I could always count on him to turn things around, it seemed. Thus, I clutched my straw limply in hand. Guess I'm stuck with Nanase. He didn't say anything, either.

"Hehe, I'm with Gou-chan!" Nagisa cheered as Gou glanced at her straw.

"Nagisa! It's _Kou_!"

"Gou!"

"Kou!"

"Go-"

Whilst Nagisa and Gou began arguing, Ryugazaki turned to Tachibana beside him, "Looks like we're partners, Makoto-senpai." Ryugazaki said, whilst Tachibana was nodding with a wide grin. Meanwhile, I stared at my blue straw limply and glanced at Nanase from the corner of my eye. Again, he looked stoned. Nothing surprising, really. He put down his straw on the ground and dived into the water again. I wondered if he would shrivel up and go all dry and wrinkly like a prune if he was out of water for more than five minutes.

...For some reason, I really want to trade...

...

School had finally finished; I was riding my bike through a quiet street when it began raining.

I grunted, as droplets began pouring from the sky all of a sudden. The sky had been graying since lunch and becoming cloudier compared to this afternoon but I had hoped I wouldn't be caught in it. Seconds later, the rain grew stronger and heavy droplets were battering down on me. I slowed to a stop on my bike and hastily rummaged through my schoolbag, pulling out my umbrella before opening it fully and holding it above my head. With one hand guiding the handlebars, I kicked off the ground again and rode further down the street until I saw a familiar figure walking far ahead on the sidewalk.

_...Nanase Haruka?_

I found it weird he was alone, but then I remembered that Tachibana was meeting up with Ryugazaki to watch their target and so were Gou and Nagisa. Both teams had already decided on a task before classes were over. Nanase and I hadn't even spoken to each other since the club meeting, even though we were a team and were supposed to check up on that student from Samezuka. Oh well. I guessed Nanase was busy today since he didn't offer anything, either. I decided to go home. Usually I see Tachibana and Nanase walking together. Before I met them, I would've passed them on my bike on my way to school and back a few times before, but we don't say anything to each other. I don't think Nanase or Tachibana even noticed me riding past anyway. It'll be weird if I passed Nanase today without saying something though since we already know each other's names.

_But still...we met under such embarrassing circumstances...and he knows I don't like swimming..I'm just some kind of worthless maggot in his eyes...what should I do?_I thought worriedly, as I neared and neared him in the sidewalk. Oh well, here goes nothing... I rang my bell on the bike to indicate my arrival but he never turned round. I rang even harder on the bell, pressing frantically on the little lever that it went 'ding ding ding!' like crazy. Nanase still didn't turn round. Was this guy deaf or something?

It suddenly dawned to me that I was too near him and he was still as oblivious to my presence as ever. With only one hand steering the handlebars and another still balancing the umbrella, I swerved my bike to avoid him – and the front wheel of my bike crashed into the small fence of someone's garden and I went flying into the bushes to our left whilst my bike went crashing to the ground, wheels still spinning.

Finally, Nanase turned.

I'd fallen in pretty deep; my face was practically shoved into the mud and I jerked backwards with a gasp, before I began to spit out some leaves and twigs as tiny branches kept poking at me face from all sorts of directions. "Ouch! Prickly things! Owwww! Ptooeee! PFFFT! Yuck! Ow ow ow ow!" I flailed and kicked around, having landed head-first into the shrubbery. I was hurting all over, and I'm pretty sure my butt was sticking out for all eyes to see.

"...Subaru?"

I stopped struggling immediately, "...Oh...hey, Nanase-san... What's up?" I said as coolly as I could. Huh! Look at me, tryin' to act all cool when my butt and legs were sticking out of a bush in front of a guy. To be fair, the more I struggled to get myself out, the more it seemed to hurt me, so I stopped wriggling around and my legs went slump; instead, I tried to turn round but I was lodged fast in the prickly, thorny bush. "...A little help, please? I'm stuck."

It went quiet and I thought he'd actually left until there was a soft grip on my arms which were stuck to my sides and I knew that Nanase was trying to pull me out of the undergrowth. After a few tugs and twists and finally, I popped out; I tumbled to the cold, wet ground and shook my head clear of more leaves and twigs, then looked up between the gaps of my hair to see Nanase staring at me wordlessly from above. He'd put his bag on the ground beside my bike which he then proceeded to lift back up to stand properly.

"Thanks." I said, glancing up at him meekly, "Didn't you hear me ringing the bell? I was trying to avoid you."

He shook his head.

Seriously? Is this guy for real?I tried not to gape at him."Well, thanks for helping me out. That bush was really jabby and prickly," I said, as I moved to stand beside him. "Anou...I didn't crash into you, did I?"

He shook his head, staring at me with those steady, cool blue eyes of his. "...Subaru..."

I froze up when he said my name; this would be the second time by now. "Yeah?" I breathed out.

"...You're bleeding." He said.

"H-huh? Oh!" I lifted my hand to see that one of my palms had been scraped from my nasty fall and was now, indeed, bleeding. With that, I let out a rather heavy sigh. I must come across as accident prone. "...I-I'm fine." I said quickly, and I swiftly rubbed away at the dirt and chapped skin off the side of my knuckles, wincing slightly.

"Your skirt..." He added.

"...What about my skirt?" I then quickly glanced down myself to see that a portion of my skirt appeared to have become ridden up my hips and a part was tucked into the waistband of my panties. Letting out a gasp of horror, I quickly pulled it out and smoothed it back down, my cheeks warm with embarrassment. Nanase merely stared; he didn't even wince. Nothing. His face was a blank canvas. I proceeded to dust down the rest of my uniform before turning to Nanase who raised his arm in a brief gesture.

"...Your hair."

Again, under his guidance, I swiftly tidied up my hair, pulling a few stray leaves and twigs out, "Thanks...Err, anything else?" Ground, please swallow me up whole NOW!

"Your face."

I rubbed at my face, where I felt a little scratch over my right cheek. "Ahaha, look at me, I'm a total walking disaster, right?" I said awkwardly, but Nanase neither smiled nor frowned at me. We stood awkwardly around each other in silence for a while; inwardly, I was hoping he would say something but then I noticed that he'd only spoken one or two words to me at the most. I guessed he really wasn't that talkative after all; it probably wasn't anything personal against me. "Um...thanks for saving me the other day...you know, when I got pushed into the pool and almost drowned." I began to mutter, grabbing my umbrella which had also dropped to the floor thanks to my little accident. I propped it back open to its full size until I realized that Nanase appeared to be... soaking wet? "By the way, aren't you cold?"

His reply was a very soft-spoken and simple, "No."

"Are you sure?" I asked. In response, he gave me a dull, teeny-tiny nod. I glanced at my bike, then back at him, and back to my bike. If I just rode off, leaving him to walk in the rain, wasn't that a little heartless? But I can't ride my bike with another person, especially a guy. He'll be too heavy for me. With a sigh, I thrust my umbrella to him. "...Here."

As expected, Nanase did nothing.

Again, I let out another sigh. "Go on, take it. You're drenched." I said, and Nanase finally glanced down at my umbrella, but still did not accept it. To my utmost surprise, since I'd done this without even thinking twice – I grabbed his hand and dumped the handle of the brolly into his palm. "There."

He stared at me blankly.

I swear I could hear crickets chirping, or at least, a crow cawing in the background. The silence was enough to kill someone so I quickly piped up, "Hey, Nanase-san, are you heading home right now?"

"Hai." He said quietly.

"...Um...Do you have any plans tonight?" I said anxiously, rubbing at my elbow. HUH? How come all of a sudden, this sounds like a cheesy pick-up line?!

"No."

"Then, about the student from Samezuka...I was thinking of heading to Samezuka Academy to have a look," I said, "Do you want to come with me? Since you're already here, and I'm here too and-and...uh, should we check it out?" Meh. Okay, so that was a teeny lie. I had been heading home, but since I'd bumped into Nanase, we might as well head over there?

"No. You can go yourself." was his stoic reply.

I wasn't really surprised by his response. "Nanase-san, we're supposed to be a team. We're meant to do this together." I muttered with a heavy sigh; if only I'd picked a different straw. I'd rather have Tachibana-san as my partner or something. At least we'll get something done... Without waiting for his protest, I sat down on the bicycle seat and patted the empty space behind me. "Come on. We'll do this really quickly, okay? Something tells me you want to find out who this serial urinator is as much as I do."

"I'm not going." He stated.

"Nanase-san. Don't you care about the swim club? Don't you care about who goes in the waters and who goes out? Don't you care about the fact that someone is doing such a disgusting and despicable thing in the waters you swim in?" I uttered, and suddenly, I could see that Nanase's face rather went a nice blue shade to match his hair as his mouth slowly opened with slight macabre horror. I watched the change in facial color keenly. _Did I get through to him? Hmm, seems like I need one final push. Time for the big guns! _"Are you okay with that? Are you really okay with that?" I pressed on, "Don't you care about the welfare of the club? And are you okay with swimming in those waters, knowing that someone has peed-"

Nanase suddenly turned away, as though he was unable to face me. "...No." He finally uttered out, with much difficulty. And here I thought nothing could get to this guy.

This time, I was surprised he'd agreed and I couldn't help but grin. "Okay, then let's go." I said, and I patted the seat beside me once again.

He looked very reluctant, but finally, Nanase turned round, went to the seat behind me and sat down wordlessly. Geez, he really was a quiet boy.

"Ooh, wait. Safety first. Um...you'll have to hold onto me or else you'll fall off."

Again, he did nothing.

Hmm...I wasn't too comfortable with this either. Awkwardly, my trembling hands took Nanase's arms and guided them around my waist. I went stiff as a statue immediately. Holy shit! Holy shit holy shit holy shit! What am I doing? No, seriously! What _AM_ I doing? Why does this feel so strange? My heart began pounding furiously than usual but Nanase didn't seem to notice. I gawked at his arms looped around my waist. He did not hold me too tightly or loosely. Why am I so embarrassed? I'm the one who put them there! I should take his arms off me right now! Oh, but wait...I can't do that...I didn't want Nanase to fly off and land on the road and crack his head open like a melon. Safety first, no matter how awkward or uncomfortable this is. "R-right then, let's go..." I shakily kicked off the ground and then we were cycling down the street towards the direction of Samezuka although I had to use more power than usual just to push the pedals. It's heavier with another person...

"Subaru." Nanase suddenly said.

"What?"

"...You're going the wrong way...Samezuka Academy is that way."

"Oh, oops...sorry..." I said, cringing as I turned the bike around as quickly as I could before beginning to pick up speed again.

To my utmost surprise, the entire time I was riding the bike with Nanase sitting behind me, he had opened up the umbrella and held it above my head.

...

Finally, we'd reached Samezuka Academy and Nanase sat up and off my bike. I walked it over to the bike stand and locked it. I quickly rejoined Nanase's side as we walked towards the back of the school where Samezuka's swimming pool was supposed to be located.

"This spot looks good for some espionage. Come on, let's go." I said, squatting down behind some bushes that were opposite the windows, where we could see inside the school. The swimming pool was gigantic! It was much fancier and lovelier than the one we had in Iwatobi. Nanase crouched down beside me, but otherwise, said nothing. "Okay, so we're looking for Maeda Shinji. Once we've found him, I guess we'll just tail him for a bit and see what he gets up to."

Nanase said nothing but I guessed he'd agree with the plan. We sat for a long time. Maeda Shinji was a dark-haired, buff boy with an intimidating face and a bulging, buff body to boot. We could see him barking orders and pointing angrily at almost everyone until swimming practise was over. By that time, I was beginning to tremble slightly in my spot.

"...He's leaving." Nanase muttered.

"Y-yeah, I know." I said shakily, and Nanase glanced at me from the corner of his eye. Before he could ask (was he going to ask me anyway? I couldn't tell), I added, "Nnghh...I...I think I need the bathroom..." With that said, I stood up and began glancing left and right, then hopped around, "Nanase-san, do you know where the nearest bathroom is? I think I really to go."

"...There might be one inside." He replied.

"Eh? Urh, I don't want to go inside the school. They probably won't let me in because I'm not a student," I whined, "...But I probably can't hold it in any longer, too. Ohhhh..."

"...Just go. I'll wait for you outside the gate."

"Okay, I'll be real quick! Wait for me!" I replied, before I hurried off towards the back door of the Academy.

...

Pfft. What kind of school doesn't have a toilet for girls?

Oh right...Samezuka All-Boys Academy. Duh. Guess I'll have to use a boy's toilet then? Yeesh, there's a first. Then again, I share a house with three brothers so I guess there is nothing new here. I've been searching for minutes now and I still can't find any girl's toilet. This is bad. Really bad. Guess I'll have to use the boy's loo. Oh well. I rushed towards the door with the Gents symbol on it and knocked on the door first. "Uh...erm...ahem!" I cleared my throat and made it as a deep as it could go, "Hello. Anyone in there?"

There was silence.

Okay, that's my cue. I pushed open the door and ran in. At first, I noticed that the air was very thick with steam and it was rather hot, like a sauna, but it seemed no-one was in, so I stared around, realizing it was an empty boy's changing room. Right, better make this quick and find a toilet. I scurried further inside the changing room only to come to a stop when a fair-skinned, red-haired and very, very naked guy with strange teeth stared at me from his spot with a damp towel in hand and a wet swimsuit was sitting beside him on the bench along with his goggles and other swimming gear, gawking at me wide-eyed.

I stared at him.  
He stared at me.

And then...

"AAAAAARGHHHHHHH!" We both yelped at the sight of each other.

"T-Turn around!" The guy yelled furiously, his face bright red to match the color of his hair as he hurriedly wrapped his long, fluffy white towel around his waist.

"ARGH! MY EYES! MY EYES!" I screamed, "WHAT IS THAT!?"

His eyes narrowed, those strange spiky teeth of his clenching tightly into a feral snarl, "What the hell! You're not turning round!"

"Sorry!" Finally, I turned round at his request and I heard the rustle of fabric. Obviously the guy was probably drying himself and covering himself up. Hey, wait! Why am I still standing here? I shouldn't even be here in the first place! I should get going, now! With that thought in mind, I began to run out of the changing room.

"Hey! Get back here!" I heard the red-haired guy yelling at me angrily, but I ignored him and continued to run, my heart pounding furiously.

...

I rushed out of the school premises minutes later to see Nanase waiting for me at the gate as he promised. I was relieved to see him there. "Haru!" I yelped, "I'm being chased! Get on the bike! No, wait, you have to unlock first! My lock combination is zero zero zero zero! Hurryyyyyy!"

"Subaru-" He didn't have a chance to finish his sentence, as once I had arrived at Nanase's side, I hastily unlocked the bike since he was still standing, doing absolutely nothing. Just then, that boy from earlier on decided to come running out, shouting at us, and this time, fully dressed.

"Hey, you! Get back here!"

I climbed on the bike and turned round to Nanase, "Eek! He's here! Let's goooo! Haru, hurry up!"

"Subaru, wait, that's-"

"Never mind! Let's go!" I yelled, and before I knew what I had done, I grabbed his hand then dragged him towards my bike, plopping him down on the seat behind me and once he was seated, we were off.

* * *

Hey everyone :) Thanks for the reviews (from previous chapter and Chapter 3). I hope you enjoyed this chapter too! Ok, so I'm pretty sure you all know that the one who Subaru walked in on at the changing room was Rin haha. It was all LOL when I was writing it, but OMG! Haru is soooo hard to get into character...It's like I don't even know what to do with him...sniff...he's really hard...believe me, I love Haru but I watched all of Free (finally) and out of all the characters, I ended up liking the other characters more than Haru, actually (my opinion, please don't hate me XO) but aside from that, it's really making me doubt pairing him with an OC now...


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